1. Field of the Invention
This application is directed to the general field of parking garages for automotive vehicles and more particularly to automated vehicle parking garages and/or storage systems wherein vertical stacks or columns of vehicle storage cubicles are laid out in generally parallel rows that are generally equally spaced by aisles that are of generally equal width and of a size to permit one or more automatically guided vehicles (AGVs) to move both horizontally and vertically between the rows of storage cubicles.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Adequate automotive vehicle parking spaces and short and long term storage spaces for such vehicles is an ever growing problem in most major cities in the world. Further, the parking problems are not limited to cities, but often to public transit areas such as airports, docking terminals, railway stations and the like as well as to commercial and entertainment facilities such as shopping malls, sports and concert complexes and the like.
Conventional parking garages are constructed in such a manner that each vehicle is driven from a garage entrance to an open parking space either by the driver or by a attendant who works for the garage facility. In either case, the effective parking space is limited for each footprint of garage surface area as there is a lot of “dead space” in conventional garages that can not be used for parking. Such “dead space’ includes ramps that must be provided between each level of the parking facility and aisles or driving lanes that must be provided between oppositely oriented parking spaces to permit vehicles to drive between the spaces and to turn and maneuver into the parking spaces. With the ever increasing costs of real estate, there must be improvements made to maximize the parking capability of parking garages.
In an attempt to mitigate against some of the problems associated with conventional parking garages, a variety of automated garages have been proposed to enhance the parking of automotive vehicles. Some enhancements have developed continuous chain systems that support a plurality of parking platforms on which vehicles may be supported. The continuous chain systems allow vehicles to be stored in vertical rows in close horizontal relationship relative to one another but are not practically functional as the retrieval of one vehicle from the system may require that substantially the entire length of the continuous chain may have to be moved relative to a discharge area in order to allow a particular vehicle to be removed from the parking system.
In other newer automated parking garages, vehicles entering the garage are initially driven onto a platform that moves the vehicle into alignment with a transport device, such as a horizontally movable elevator. The vehicle must be transferred from the platform to the elevator so that the elevator may raise the vehicle until it is aligned with a parking bin. Once aligned, the vehicle is off loaded. Such multiple transfers of a vehicle from one movement unit to another results in an inefficient and time ineffective manner in which to park vehicles in a parking facility. Also, with such automated systems, the vehicles are transferred into the parking bins in a lengthwise direction, thus requiring a transfer distance of up to twenty-five feet or more in order to place a vehicle in a parking bin.
In light of the foregoing, there remains a need to provide a more efficient and cost effective automated vehicle parking system that increases the number of parking spaces for a given land footprint for a parking garage and wherein vehicles entering and leaving the garage are handled using a minimum number of vehicle handling equipment.